The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum is home to approximately 40-50 polydactyl (six-toed) cats. Polydactyly is a congenital physical anomaly that causes the cat to be born with more than the usual number of toes on one or more of its paws.
Hemingway was a cat lover and admired them for their spirit and independence. The Hemingway cats as they are know as are free to roam the home and museum. They can be found sleeping anywhere around the grounds or house as the cat above stretched out on the couch in the living room.
Sometimes it looks as if they are wearing mittens because they appear to have a thumb on their paw.
Hemingway was given his first cat six-toed cat, Snowball, from a sea captain who visited him in Key West. This fluffy white cat carried the polydactyl gene in DNA that has been passed down.
The cats are still given whimsical names of movie stars or characters or famous people just as Hemingway did such as Marilyn Monroe or Bubba.
